Η οικογένεια των παραχαρακτών
by IReadNoNonsense
Summary: A series of events that teaches Leo a few things about his new family.   Chapter 2: "Nobody messes with the Hephaestus cabin and gets away with it."
1. Chapter 1

The first thing Leo Valdez saw when he woke up was Harley, still in his pajamas, jumping up and down on his bed, with the rest of his siblings looking at both of them in amusement. They were gathered around his bed like they had been waiting for a while, a few of them were even yawning and trying to stay awake.

"Good morning Leo," Harley sang and finally stopped jumping. "We have something for you." The kid's smile was so contagious that Leo couldn't help but grin back.

Nyssa tossed him a parsel wrapped in silver and bronze foil. "Here you go_ cabin leader._" She gave him a small smile.

Leo stumbled after the parcel and caught it.

He stared at it, wondering why his siblings would go through all the trouble giving him a present.

Jake laughed, apparently amused by Leo's reaction. He leaned on one of his crutches and nudged him with the other one. "Just open it."

"What is this?" Leo asked turning it around with his hand.

"You'll find out when you open it," a guy who was sturdier and taller than him said. What was his name again? Carlos? Carly? Chris... Christopher!

He unwrapped the gift slowly, half expecting it to be some kind of prank. What he got was a weird looking pair of metal goggles. It was bronze and had a dial on the right side, labeled with something that was written in ancient greek. There were a few buttons and small levers here and there that it looked like one of those futuristic mechanical tools he saw once on tv. The thing was so... Hephaestus-ish.

He tried it on and was surprised at how comfortable it was. Most of the goggles he had worn before were either too small, too large, or painful to wear. This one was just comfortable.

"Thanks, I guess." He played around with the dial. "But what the heck is this for?"

"It's like our way of welcoming you into the family," Jake answered and gave him a cheeky grin. "We didn't have time to give it to you yesterday when you showed us Bunker 9."

"We all have one, actually." Nyssa brought out hers, which was silver. "It's like our signature item. You can't be a Hephaestus kid without it."

One by one, they all brought out their own goggles, all 14 of them.

Shane, though, brought out a pair of sunglasses.

"Oops," he answered sheepishly, "I forgot to change it back." He turned the dial and the metal pieces folded into each other to form back into a pair of white goggles.

"I still don't see how useful that form is," a redhead said, frowning at her own pair of goggles. "The sunglasses form is only useful when the sun's hot, eh."

"It helps make us look cool," Shane said and scowled at her. "But it's not like _you_ care much for outer looks."

"Yep," the girl answered with a bored look. "I don't."

That seemed to settle the argument and Shane went back to admiring his reflection on the goggles's glass.

Leo looked at his own pair of goggles and turned the dial. It expanded and transformed into one of those weilding masks his mom used to use before.

"Cool."

"It can turn into a lot of things too," Harley said, bobbing up and down making his bed bounce around again. "It can, like, make an object appear closer or farther which helps make all of those small parts and, and, you can adjust the shading. It can turn into all kinds of goggles like a diving mask, infrared goggles, 3d glasses, blowtorch goggles, aviator goggles, motorcycle goggles, night vision goggles, it also has an anti-fog ability which is really co-."

Nyssa clasped his mouth with her hand. "What Harley means to say is that it can turn into a lot of things and has a lot of tools that makes forging or creating new things easier."

As soon as she removed her hand from Harley's mouth, the hyperactive boy began talking again. "-ol. But if you like you want to make a design of steampunk goggles like Diana did with hers you can do that too all you have to do is learn how to install and make the goggles adjust to it."

Harley took in a deep breath and was about to open his mouth to say more when Jake stopped him.

"I think he gets it Harley." He ruffled the younger boy's hair affectionately.

Leo turned the dial again and marveled at how it transformed from a weilding mask into a pair of night vision goggles.

"Who made this?"

"It's a group effort, actually," Jake answered with a shrug. "When you think it needs something, you suggest it during our nightly meetings. Then in the morning, we'll install and forge it into our handy dandy goggles."

"Wait, we have nightly meetings?"

"Just before we go to bed." Seeing Leo's guilty and worried look Jake reassured him, "don't worry, you looked tired last night so we decided not to wake you up." Jake paused for a moment and added, "it was Charles who suggested the goggles."

There was an awkward silence that made Leo feel slightly uncomfortable. There was that name again; Charles Beckendorf. It was obvious that his siblings missed the guy a lot. Leo had only been in the cabin for less than three days and yet hearing about the guy made him wish that he had arrived in camp earlier. He sounded like the type of big brother everybody wanted.

"Thanks for the gift," he said again and cracked a grin. "Can this thing turn into a Darth Vader mask too?"

Nobody laughed, but at least a few of them smiled. Did that mean his siblings actually had a sense of humor?

Robert, a big-boned American guy who seemed to hate all humans who weren't his siblings, sighed. "Is this happy little reunion over? We still need to change our clothes and head to the dining hall." He gestured towards their clothes, most of which were pajamas or night clothes.

Ren, an 11 year old Japanese with black hair and eyes, glanced at Leo and smiled. "Welcome to the family _onii-san."_ The small boy sat on his bed to activate the buttons to go into his bunker.

Soon, his other siblings followed and greeted him before going into their own bunkers.

"Welcome to our dysfunctional family _mi fratello_."

"I hope you get used to this crazy family, Leo."

"Hey Leo! I'll show you the best spots for setting up traps and stuff!"

"Leo, do you watch transformers? Oh, well, we'll talk about it later and welcome to our messed up family bro!"

"I hope you behave _mi hermano pequeño_, I don't like it when the cabin is dirty."

Once they were gone, Leo went down into his own bunker.

There was something warm crawling into Leo chest as he looked at his new pair of goggles.

It had been a long time since anyone considered him as family. His own relatives from his mother's side had abandoned him. None of them wanted to take care of a fire child. He had felt so hurt and alone that time that he rarely ever let himself open up to others.

But his sibling's simple gestures somehow made him want to cry. They greeted him so warmly like what his mother used to do. That was stupid because they weren't his mother.

But they were family.

His family.

He grinned and wiped away some oncoming tears. He had to change his clothes quickly. He didn't want to make them wait.

Family.

Somehow, that word didn't sound as painful as it was before.

* * *

><p><strong>Hm... : I'm still not used in writing in Leo's POV.**

**Hello! Yes, I'm alive. Yes, I'm bored. Anyway, I need to work on my writing skills so if you guys spot some mistakes and mishap or just want to criticize my writing, feel free. **

**This is just something that came into my mind because there are too few Leo family fanfiction out there.**

**Feel free to ask me if you have any questions.**

**If you want to add your OC into the picture, feel free. Just PM me about it, alright?**

**Also, if you guys have any suggestion, I'll be happy to include it into the story. **

**Next chapter will come soon. Hopefully.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Bunker 9, December 23, XXXX_

"So, first thing's first, where are we going to build the ship?" Jake asked, twirling what looked like an old-style wrench he had found in Bunker 9 earlier.

"Near the beach," Nyssa answered immediately. "It has the widest area in the whole camp that doesn't have much people in it."

"Yeah," Robert said darkly. "Too bad because I always wanted to _accidentally _drop one of my hammers on one of them Nike kids."

"Robert..."

The dark haired boy scowled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna shut up now," he harrumphed.

"I guess that's a good idea," Leo said. "But we also have another problem, where are we going to get the materials?"

Jake put down his wrench and frowned. "Yeah, we never thought of that." He glanced at the blueprints that was posted on Bunker 9's wall. "That would take a lot of metal and wood. We could pull in some favors to make the mast but the rest is just too expensive."

Leo frowned. _Hey dad,_ he thought sarcastically, _do you have any spare metal up there?_

Obviously, nobody answered.

Yeah. Leo thought dejectedly. Thanks dad. He was kind of hoping he'd get an answer.

"Um guys?" Harley said and waved his arms widely to get their attention.

"What is it Harley?"

"Look what me an' the twins found!" The boy pointed excitedly at the far end of the Bunker. "We found a _secret entrance_."

They all glanced at where he was pointing and suddenly realized that the boys had scratched away part of the wall while they were talking to reveal some kind of drawing. At first it looked a bunch of stray and random lines but the more Leo focused on it, the more he could see what it really was; _a ship's hull_.

Leo jumped over a stray piece of metal, which looked strangely like a collection of saxophones, and ran towards the end where the Aussie twins were scratching the wall.

"Look bro," one of them said excitedly. Leo still couldn't decide which twin was which. "It has one of those holes you use to open the Bunker."

"Probably some abandoned extension," the other replied. "Might be full of dead bodies."

"Or treasure!"

"Or bugs-"

"Well," Leo interrupted them, "it's time to find out."

He willed some fire to catch on his hands. He could hear his siblings give a sharp intake of breath and stare at his fire. Haven't they gotten used to his freaky powers yet? It made Leo slightly uncomfortable that they were oggling him.

Leo thrust his hand into the hole the twins dug out and watched as the walls divided into itself and formed an opening.

The inside was dark and dry but the moment he stepped inside, the lights simultaneously lit up and showed the room in full glory.

"Woah," Christopher said in a small voice, which was weird coming from such a big guy. "I guess that answers that."

"Yeah..." Leo said in equal awe. He could practically imagine Hephaestus standing there, wearing his overalls still coated with grease and grime, wiping his hands on some towel, and saying; _Well, here's what you asked._

Because there, right in front of them, was enough metal and Celestial Bronze to build their ship.

* * *

><p>"Look at these things!" Jake exclaimed as he admired a piece of metal that was bigger than his whole frame. "Light, strong, not easily damaged. These are perfect!"<p>

"I know dude." Leo said as he lifted up another piece of metal. It was heavy but not as heavy as he thought it could be.

"We should start hauling these things things to the beach," Christopher said and lifted up some not-so-light looking beams. "I'll stop by the Ares cabin to get some help."

"These look like they could be used as some kind of supporter while we build the base," Robert said and kicked the piece of metal he was referring to. There was a loud resounding clang which seemed to satisfy him. "I'll go get the others in the forge."

Nyssa went up to Leo and pointed at somewhere beyond the field of metal. "I found a couple of beams that would be great for the ship's skeleton."

"That's good." Leo said enthusiastically. This day was getting better and better. Somehow, he felt like some load had been lifted from his shoulders. He wasn't doing this thing alone, he had his siblings to help. And surprisingly, Hephaestus was helping too.

"I'll go and carry these to the beach," he said, wanting to be helpful.

He lifted up one end of the beam on his shoulder and was surprised at how easy he did it.

Harley ran up to him and cried, "can I help you too?"

"Uh sure, you get the other end."

Unsurprisingly, Harley lifted it up as easy as he did.

They marched towards the beach with Harley doing most of the talking.

"Do we drop it here?" The boy gestured towards the side where Christopher must have unloaded his.

"I guess." Leo shrugged.

Once the beam was down, they walked back towards Bunker 9.

Even though Leo had been here for a few days already, he couldn't help but admire the camp. From the Arena, he could hear the unmistakable clang of swords. From where they were standing, he could even see the smoke coming out of the forge and - wait, was that the Arts and Crafts place?

"Oh, I remember!" Harley said so suddenly that Leo actually jumped. "Vince, Hailee and Ren are at archery practice! Let's go get them."

Leo nodded, though he couldn't remember the first two names. Was Hailee the guy who welcomed him in the mess hall on the first day?

When they reached the archery range, he could see the familiar faces of his siblings whose names he hadn't memorized yet. He was ashamed to find out that Hailee was that girl who liked to carry around a vest.

He really should start remembering their names soon.

"Hey guys!" Harley shouted making Ren miss his target. The young Japanese boy didn't seem to mind and glanced at his half-brother curiously.

"We need you back at Bunker 9 for heavy lifting," Leo continued for the younger boy.

"Sure," a guy he was _sure_ was named Vince said. "Can you help me move some of these targets to the left? There's a shortcut to the bunker over there-" He pointed to somewhere beyond his right where Leo realized was the path that he used to enter the forest to find Festus what seemed like a week ago. "-and these things are blocking the way."

"Yeah, sure." Leo said cheerfully. If this goes on, he was going to have muscles by the end of the week!

It was a slow process, maybe because the targets were a tad bit heavier than he expected.

"Oof," he grunted and put down the target he was carrying. "Is this right?"

"Yeah," Vince answered. The older boy turned to Harley and shouted, "You alright there Harley?"

Leo glanced at Harley's direction and noticed a bunch of Apollo kids that were talking. One of them snickered and notched his arrow. He was aimed it towards the target Harley was carrying.

"Oi," Leo shouted, "what are y-"

The guy fired at the red mark of the target. "Bull's eye!" he shouted gleefully.

"Gah!"

Taken by surprise, Harley stumbled and fell on his back, dropping the heavy target on himself.

"Harley!" He could hear one of his siblings shout.

Ren, Hailee and Leo ran towards to boy, lifted the target, and moved it away from him.

The redhead, Hailee, swooped down and helped Harley up.

"Let's get you to the healers," she murmured.

Harley nodded and groaned.

"I'm coming wi-" Leo started to say but was stopped by a sound he didn't expect to hear.

_Laughter._

The Apollo guy was _laughing_. Not the least bit sorry for what he'd done.

Leo sizzled, like really sizzled, and he could feel smoke coming out of his skin. He felt his fingers twitch and catch fire.

When he was done with them they were gonna wish they were roasted over a pit of lava!

_Nobody,_ nobody messed with _his _ family!

He took a menacing step forward and was about to throw one of the hottest flames he had ever summoned when a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

He turned around and was about the snap at whoever dared to stop him from killing the guy when he realized it was just Vince.

"What?" he said though it came out more harshly than he intended. Leo seemed to realize he was burning his sibling's hand and took a deep breath to cool down.

"Leave them," Vince said darkly. He wasn't looking at him but at the Apollo kid. There was a strange glint in his eyes. "We'll deal with them later."

"But-" Leo started to protest.

"_Later."_

* * *

><p>Later was apparently during the cabin meeting. All the support structure had been finished and the basic skeleton of the ship's hull was already up by the end of the day.<p>

At first, Leo didn't think that his siblings cared about what happened to Harley since they all acted normally for the rest of the day but tonight, they looked grim and downright angry.

"Why thsy stupid little-"

"It was that Gideon kid wasn't it?"

"Guys! Order, order!" Jake's voice boomed all over the cabin. "Settle down."

"Leo," The older boy turned to him, "since this is your first meeting, you'll just have to watch how I do it tonight. Tomorrow, I'll let you take over."

Leo nodded. He wasn't sure how to lead one of these meetings anyway.

Jake took in a deep breath and said, "okay. What's the plan?"

"Plan?" Leo asked. Didn't they already have a plan for the boat? "Plan for what?"

"Plan for revenge of course," Jake said darkly with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Nobody messes with the Hephaestus cabin and gets away with it."

* * *

><p>"Plan, start." Nyssa said through the shortwave radio.<p>

It turned out that a few months ago during the war one of the Hephaestus kids had suggested installing a radio on the goggles to help in the battles. Now though, it's only use was for executing revenge.

"Got it," Jake's voice crackled on another end.

Both Leo and Nyssa were sitting on the picnic tables just beyond the archery range. They looked like they were talking, but in reality, they were communicating through their radio.

They watched as Jake headed up the archery range towards the Apollo kid who shot down Harley yesterday.

"Hey Gideon," Jake called. "Would you mind helping me get a few boxes at the front of the forge? We just finished your cabin's new set of arrows."

"Yeah, sure." Gideon, apparently, said nervously. He glanced at the other guys who seemed to be sending him some kind of message with their eyes and gulped. "Look man, I'm sorry about yesterday-"

"Oh, it's alright," Jake answered breezilly. "It was an accident after all."

"Yeah, accident," Gideon said nodding so vigorously that it looked like he was trying to whip his long golden locks back and forth. He sighed, apparently relieved about something.

"Too late for sorry Giddy," Shane muttered through the radio. "Now, you're going to have to go through the curse of the forges."

"Curse of the forges?" Leo asked through the radio.

"When someone messes with us _mi fratello-_," Someone he couldn't remember started.

"-something bad happens to them-," said one of the twins.

"-like their sword weighing 10 times more heavier-," said another twin.

"-or their armor is suddenly as hard as cheese-," Vince continued.

"-or their arrows are as sharp as spaghetti." A girl he couldn't remember said.

"Nobody suspects us much because we don't act like we're angry." Nyssa said with a grin. "So they call it the curse of the forges."

"Remind me never to make you guys angry," Leo remarked, returning her grin.

They watched as Gideon and Jake made their way to the forges.

Leo and Nyssa followed them and acted like they were talking about something serious.

"Carry that box over there." Jake pointed at a box with his crutches.

Gideon stooped over and tried to lift it. He seemed to realize that the box was heavier than he thought it would be and was struggling to lift it up.

Leo and Nyssa were nearer to them now, so they raised their voices enough that the Apollo kid could hear them.

"-make the Athena cabin to choose the type of cloth for the mast."

"I guess, but who's going to make it?"

"I hear the Tyche cabin is rather helpful, maybe they can-"

Just when they were right beside Gideon, Ren suddenly appeared and ran towards them excitedly, chattering about something in Japanese.

He couldn't seem to stop and ran straight on into Leo.

Leo stumbled back and 'accidentally' pushed Gideon, making the blonde guy topple over and 'accidentally' land into one of their traps that was hidden by the soil.

The trap let out a few sparks and sprayed the Apollo kid with something that smelled like a combination of rust and grease.

"Oh Zeus," Leo said, acting horrified. "I'm sorry dude. You alright?"

"Yeah," Gideon coughed. "What was this trap anyway? And what was it doing here?"

"Sorry. Dennis must have left it yesterday when we were installing new traps around our cabin." Jake glanced at the trap and winced. "That, my friend, is the magnet trap. It makes all sort of metal attracted to you." And as if to prove his point, the boxes filled with metal shafted arrows shivered.

Gideon cast a horrified look at the boxes.

"Don't worry," Jake said quickly. "We made sure that most of the sharp pointed objects aren't affected."

"Most?" blonde boy squeaked. It made Leo want to laugh.

"I don't think forks are an exception. Sorry." Jake must have been a real good actor because he looked so sincere when he apologized. He looked thoughtful before adding, "just to be sure, stay away from the forges, mess hall, arena, archery range, Ares cabin, _our _cabin, or any other place that might have sharp metal objects."

"It only lasts for a day," Ren said shyly.

"Assuming you last that long," Robert, who just came out of the forge, added dryly and picked up one of the boxes.

Gideon didn't even reply and just ran towards the strawberry field, the only place where there wasn't anything metal. He hadn't even taken his 13th step when a metal tin can that was coincidentally left by a random satyr hit and stayed on his head. He didn't stop running and was hit by a pack of metal nuts and bolts that flew out of Shane's hand who was 'just' going back to the forge.

"Did you guys leave all those random metal stuff around camp?" Jake asked through the radio once the Apollo kid was faraway. Everybody else who wasn't from their cabin seemed preoccupied by the sight of flying metal rings chasing Gideon.

"Yessir!" replied a lot of voices.

"The Apollo cabin?" Nyssa asked through hers.

"The Stoll brothers will learn about this soon enough. They don't want to miss an 'opportunity' for pranking like this." Vince replied. "By the end of the hour, I'm sure they'll come by the forges to borrow some metal stuff from us."

"Good." Leo nodded. "Revenge will be served."

"Good," crackled a voice from a radio. "I'm starving, let's go to the Mess Hall for some well deserved snack."

Best. Siblings. Ever.

* * *

><p><strong>I am so bored.<strong>

**Anyway. **

**Leo Valdez, Jake Mason, Christopher, Shane, Nyssa, Harley, Stoll brothers, and the rest of the characters from PJaTO and HoO belong to Rick Riordan.**

**The others are just randomly made OCs.**

**Remember the lesson kids. **

**DON'T MESS WITH THE HEPHAESTUS KIDS.**

**Please tell me if I have any mistakes. Feel free to criticize.**

**:) Next chapter hopefully coming soon.**


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